Skip to main content

tv   The Daily Rundown  MSNBC  September 21, 2012 6:00am-7:00am PDT

6:00 am
you can go into an election night coverage and see people doing the same show. there will be 50 or 60 people there. we're still -- not quite in single digits but close. an extraordinarily well done job and we had great leadership whether you're talking about chris licht, whether you're talking about alex corson. t.j. he even got the cake wrong. >> because i'm so old, i can tell you there is no show that can do what all of you guys do. >> absolutely not. by the way, this is grape juice. this isn't even real. >> mine was real. thank you. >> if it's way too early, william, what time is it? >> it is, and has been for five years, "morning joe." >> great job! >> what? i don't get a kiss? >> it's been great. message mayhem. mitt romney spends another week
6:01 am
knocked off course, while president obama changes the change line. we'll talk with senior obama campaign advisor david axelrod about that. plus, slew of new battleground polls confirm the president's lead, and it means we have a new battleground map. here's a hint. the toss-ups are narrowing and romney's path to 270 is as well. lashing out over libya. after hedging for days, the white house is now calling the attack that killed the am an act of terrorism. was politics behind that delay? and what would have happened if al gore had defeated george w. bush in the disputed election of 2000? would 9/11 have happened? would we have plunged into a recession? we're taking a deep dive into a fascinating alternate universe that jeff greenfield wrote about. but we start with the normal course of events. good morning from washington. it is friday, september 21st, 2012. this is "the daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. mitt romney's week started with a plan for new ads and a newly focused message. that plan quick le went out the
6:02 am
window. after a hectic week, all the soun and fury boils down to more missed opportunities for the romney campaign. less than seven weeks before election day. republicans are seizing on comments the president made thursday at a spanish language forum on his biggest failure in office. at first the president said immigration, and then he added this. >> obviously, the fact that we haven't been able to change the tone in washington is disappointing. i've learned some lessons over the last four years and the most important lesson i've learned is that you can't change washington from the inside. you can only change it from the outside. >> romney campaign in this news cycle chase that they're in jumped on those comments and romney had this unscripted riff in sarasota. >> the president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. he said he can't change washington from the inside. he can only change it from outside. well, we're going to give him that chance in november. he's going outside! >> it was a fired up romney
6:03 am
there, but democrats are eager to note, romney said something similar back in 2007. >> i believe that at this time to change washington, it would be helpful to have somebody who comes with more private sector skill, experience outside washington, i don't think you change washington from the inside. i think you change it from the outside. >> of course, he was running against an insider, john mccain. the question though, with washington so unpopular, who would argue you can change it from the inside? meanwhile, democrats continue to hammer romney over the 47% comment. president obama even worked in a dig himself yesterday. >> when you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is, maybe you haven't gotten around a lot. >> today as the president and paul ryan prepare to speak to the aarp in new orleans, the obama campaign continues to press that message in a campaign video. this one pegged to seniors.
6:04 am
the president was on the defensive about his record though, by the way, specifically on the issue of immigration. he was pressed hard by jorge ramos. >> a promise is a promise. and with all due respect, but you didn't keep that promise. >> i am happy to take responsibility for the fact that we didn't get it done but i did not make a promise that i would get everything done 100% when i was elected as president. >> still this week has been dominated by tough criticism from republicans about the romney campaign. it's been something they haven't been able to shake. yesterday in iowa, ann romney spoke out for the first time with a message for republican critics. >> what do you say to your fellow republicans who did -- >> stop it. this is hard. you want to try it? get in the ring. this is hard. well now there's new evidence that a month of missed opportunities has taken a toll on the romney campaign and the electoral map is shifting. in nbc's first battleground map since the conventions and a slew
6:05 am
of state polling that we've donend others have done, president obama has slightly expanded his electoral vote lead over romney. it is now 243 for obama, 191 for romney, 104 still up for grabs. we moved iowa out of the toss-up column and in lean-obama. the president is now up 50% to 42%, matching what we had been hearing on the ground. in colorado, the president has a smaller lead but he still hits 50%. 50%-45%. in wisconsin the president is also up by five points, 50%-45%. joining me now, director of the maris poll. lee, we were in the field in the middle of the curfuffle of 47%. we did see some evidence of the mitt romney unfavorable ratings. >> in all three states, this wasn't the case last week, in all three states that we've done
6:06 am
now, these three battleground states, his fave/eon favorable is upside down. he has more negatives than positives. that's not a good thing if you're challenging an incumbent whose favorability is over 50% in all three states as well. romney clearly taking a hit for a lot of things, not the least of which is the 47% comment. >> i want to go through each state very quickly one big nugget we got out of it, in colorado the president over 70% among latino voters. you did a look at sort of the white versus non-white vote in colorado. big shift. >> yeah. and that's -- look. it is among non-whites, among latinos. that's his margin. if it was just among white voters that would be a problem for voters in ohio and iowa. when you mix the latino numbers in to this, that's real lit margin for him in this state, and he's opened up, as you say, a fairly noteworthy advantage in this state. >> all three states showed
6:07 am
double digit gender gap but iowa, the biggest one. 18 points. >> yeah. he's got double-digit gender and the president is favored in each of those states. huge in iowa. he's only having a single digit deficit among men in each of these three states. the difference is, dare i say, the gender gap again. >> i want to move to with wisconsin. paul ryan almost as high favorable ratings as the president. what can you tell me about -- you looked at it via all the congressional districts. what can you tell me about how they're doing in ryan's congressional district? >> actually, that is a district right now that romney is carrying. not by double digits by i think it is around eight points. so there is a ryan effect but it is not offsetting what is a five-point advantage state wide for obama. look, obama carried the state by 14 percentage points last time. he's got it by five this time. it is not doing nearly as well
6:08 am
but it's muff to certainly have this state at least close or tipping his way. >> and one final point in what appears to be a mirror image that we found in the national polling. the president and romney on the economy. all three of thee states. does romney lead in any of the three states on the economy? >> pretty much fighting to a draw on the key issue for the romney campaign. we're seeing a fairly even numbers all within the margin of error. and in fact numerically in iowa, obama's actually ahead on the economy. you've got the economy fighting to a draw, then foreign policy, obama's really trumping romney. in a sense, that's where we are right now at a time when obama is at 50% in the toss-up in all three of these states. that's the difference. >> we'll see you next week when we got three more coming out. finally in first read today, we go to the two big debates yesterday in what may be the most watched senate races in the
6:09 am
country. massachusetts and virginia. polling just keeps coming out of massachusetts. democrat elizabeth warren has a small lead in 3 out of 4 recent polls. the fourth gave the edge to republican senator scott brown. last night the two squared off in their first senate debate. brown played up his regular guy roots arriving at the debate in his trademark green pick-up truck and attacked warren on character. >> professor warren claimed that she was a native american, a person of color. as you can see, she's not. that being said, she checked the box. >> i believed my mother and my father and my aunts and my uncles and i never asked anybody for any documentation. i don't know any kid who did. >> war didn't her best to saddle brown with the republican brand. brown did everything he could to persuade voters he wasn't really a republican -- or at least a moderate. >> this really may be a race for control of the senate and the supreme court may very well hang in the balance. >> listen, i'm the second most bipartisan in the united states
6:10 am
senate, was recently named by washington onmagazine as the least partisan senator. >> senator brown voted in the only chance had he against a pro-choice woman. it's not just about senator brown's vote, this is about the votes of all of the republicans. jim inhoff, the senator, would become the person who would have supervision over the environmental protection agency. >> you're not running against jim inhoff. you're running against me, professor. >> more jim inhoff references in that debate than even references. moving on to virginia, another race where four polls in the last two weeks have the race razor tight. fiscal issues dominated a debate moderated by nbc's david gregory who pressed both candidates to respond to romney's remarks d disparaging 47% of households that pay no federal income tax. >> you think nearly half the country see themselves as victims because they're too dependent -- >> no. i see people -- i've looked very positively of the people of
6:11 am
virginia -- >> you would part company with governor romney on this point? >> excuse me? >> would you disagree with governor romney on this point? >> i have my own point of view and my point of view is the people of america still believe in the american dream. >> do you believe that everyone in virginia should pay something in federal income tax? >> well, everyone pays taxes. the statistics -- >> federal income tax. >> i would be open to a proposal that would have some minimum tax overhaul for everyone. but i do insist many of the 47% that governor romney was going after pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than he does. >> well, as we just heard, the firestorm over romney's secretly recorded remarks is spreading down the ballot to other hotly contested races with some republicans distancing themselves from their party's presidential standard bearer. let's bring in the moderator of that virginia debate, and of course moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. first, you seemed to cause tim cain a little bit of a problem there. he found himself on a little bit of the defensive after the debate following that remark. give me your general impressions about george allen.
6:12 am
was he trying to be a virginia republican, a national republican or a virginia moderate? >> well, a virginia former chief executive who can sort of steer clear of some of these big partisan debates. i think you see that in massachusetts as well. he certainly did not double down on mitt romney. didn't mention mitt romney. and was very ginger about openly disagreeing with him but certainly didn't want to be cast as part of this 47% argument. so an emphasis on both sides which is interesting about virginia on getting past partisan politics, getting past some of the dysfunction in washington. >> independents are more up for grabs it seems in this senate race than actually in the presidential where obama had opened up a lead on romney but those two were neck and neck. from that's why fiscal issues dominated. also defense cuts a big issue in virginia. >> massachusetts was watching how she was trying to nationalize the race, elizabeth warren. scott brown trying to make it local. how much nationalizing/local did
6:13 am
you experience in virginia? >> i think it was a lot more local. nationalizing was about getting past some of the name calling in washington, more practical results. but you did see allen trying to nationalize the sequestration issue on defense cuts saying this was governor cain who had supported that and it was kang russ f dangerous for the state. >> we talked about ann romney's comments and they really struck you. you just interviewed both mitt romney and ann romney. you had come away with the same impression that she's -- this is getting to her a little bit. >> any spouse feels the pain of their own husband going through this. i think ann romney is showing some of the strains that we know are going on inside the campaign. she told me she felt that her husband was being demonized. here she's telling conservatives to stop it, that this is hard. why don't you get into the ring. it is hard. national human reactions but also i think illustrating the strains of how difficult it is for mitt romney to try to get better known and rehabilitate some of these negative image problems. >> quickly on foreign policy. the romney campaign's trying to
6:14 am
bring it back. we just saw dan senor this morning talking about syria. but the white house reaction on libya has been very slow. is this a potential problem? >> well, it is. we've seen it in our polling, as you pointed out, that some decrease in that lead on handling of foreign policy for the president. there's no question whether it's syria, whether it's the arab spring, any kind of unrest, they'd like to bring up as a potential disadvantage for obama. >> how got? >> we're going to talk to duvall patrick and kelly ayotte. much more ahead on the d"th daily rundown." you can in-person vote in two states right now, folks. did you know? we'll tell you who is casting presidential ballots today and a bunch of states starting tomorrow. plus, obama senior advisor david axelrod joins me next on
6:15 am
the polls, the fight over libya and what the president meant by changing his change message. but first a look ahead at the schedules of the president in virginia today, aarp remarks. and mitt romney, heads out west. going to do an event in las vegas and guess what he also has to do? raise more money. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. icans bee in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what?
6:16 am
shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. now in two new flavors. [ male announcer ] there's oreo creme under that fudge! and every day since, two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country. in fact, over the last five years, no other energy company has invested more in the us than bp.
6:17 am
we're working to fuel america for generations to come. today, our commitment to the gulf, and to america, has never been stronger. constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'.
6:18 am
we're just 46 days away from election day. president obama's campaign team does have a little small breeze at their backs with positive poll positions in key states, and even an unexpected edge in overall campaign to campaign fund-raising. short while ago i spoke with david axelrod, senior advisor on president obama's re-election campaign and i asked him about
6:19 am
the president saying you can't change washington from the inside and how that is a tough thing to hear from someone who's running for re-election. >> it's not a tough thing to hear at all, chuck, because it's really what he's been saying for a long time. the way to move this congress and the way to move this town is to enlist the american people. president said that coming out of the standoff on the debt. >> isn't that the argument a challenger would make? isn't that what romney should be saying? >> in fact mitt romney once said exactly what the president said, that you have to make change from the outside. the point here is that in a democracy and particularly at this time in our democracy, it is only through the will of the american people being heard that we're going to actually move this congress which is very much caught in an ideological partisan quagmire on the republican side. the interesting thing is mitt
6:20 am
romney's a guy who's said i'm the perfect tea party candidate, who said i'm a severe conservative, who signed a tax pledge with grover norquist to say i won raise taxes $1 on anyone. is he going to really end the morass in washington? i think he'll just jump right into the pool. >> one thing about the president and the second term when he's been talking about what he would do in a second term is mitt romney saying i'll get 12 million jobs created. we haven't heard that from the president. >> one thing that's noteworthy on the 12 million number is that the congressional budget office projections under current policies we get 12 million jobs so there's no net -- >> what you're saying -- >> what i'm saying is that the president has put forward a practical plan and set practical goals for a million manufacturing jobs, for doubling export, for raising fuel efficiency standards further, for doing a series of things that will move our economy
6:21 am
forward. and governor romney has thrown out that number which is essentially meaningless but the number that is meaningless is the key to his whole strategy is a $5 trillion tax cut that he has been unwilling to say how he would pay for it. >> is this the lesson though from the -- dprfrom '08 to now,e you guys very careful about not overpromising? >> well, no. i think that he's laid out are ambitious but practical, achievable goals. >> what makes them ambitious? >> i think a million new manufacturing jobs is ambitious. we've created half a million in the last 30 months but that's the most robust growth since the 1990s. so we have to keep on that scheme. training 2 million americans through our community colleges in conjunction with business for jobs that are unfilled now because people don't have the appropriate skills. that is a practical, ambitious but achievable goal. and he has a series of those
6:22 am
that will move this country forward. what governor romney has is this tax plan that will either explode the defense fit or raise taxes on the middle class and he won't give us the specifics because he knows that. >> i want to move to libya. it seemed as if the white house db everybody else had -- everybody else had a version of the story and the white house was pushing back on it. very late yesterday the white house says, okay, it was a terrorist attack in benghazi. when you're this close to an election, you can't help but ask -- are you 100% confident politics had nothing to do with sort of what looks like from the outside the white house dragging its feet on the explanation? >> look, on the specifics i will leave it to the white house to speak to because this is a serious matter and it's one -- i don't have security clearance. i can't speak to everything about that. but i know this -- it is not being treated as a political issue at the white house. and when you have an incident like this, your responsibility
6:23 am
is to investigate it thoroughly and move deliberately and that's what they've done. and to simply jump in to this issue and mischaracterize it and find out later that you had would have been a terribly irresponsible thing to do. it is the kind of thing that governor romney did, frankly, at the beginning and we can't afford to do that when the president is actually a man who has responsibilities as commander in chief. >> you believe you're winning right now? >> i think we're doing well. i think that people are hearing our message. they understand where the president wants to go, that he's fighting for the middle class out there, that he has a vision of how to move this country forward and they have real questio questions. anyone in my position always has to picture losing because if you don't, then you will lose because you lose your edge. and we won't do that. but -- but, it is -- we understand that we always anticipated a close race. we expect a close race. now we've got three debates
6:24 am
coming up. governor romney's been rehearsing for these for months. and is going to be very well prepared. we know that. >> president's been doing his share of mock debates, too. >> well, not nearly -- from what i read, five in 24 hours. i've said elsewhere the invasion of normandy took less preparation than he's putting into these debates. >> the game of debate expectations, david axelrod, chief strategist for the obama campaign. thanks. up next, if late money equals momentum, then is it looking good for democrats in their battle to retake control of congress? we'll talk to a lead house republican on that. but first, today's trivia question -- when is the last time control of the house of representatives switched parties in a presidential election year?
6:25 am
6:26 am
6:27 am
6:28 am
mitt romney and paul ryan and the romney-ryan budget that ends medicare in order to fund tax cuts for millionaires have become an anchor around house republicans and that anchor is growing heavier and heavier every day. >> that was the head of the democratic congressional campaign committee, representative steve israel, on our show yesterday discussing what he thinks is the fallout from the republican party's presidential ticket. joining me now, other side of this, deputy chairman of the republican national congressional committee, congressman, let me start with go ahead and rebut. do you believe the republican ticket is making the medicare issue more complicated for your members? >> no. actually we're on offense because we have a plan to save
6:29 am
medicare, protect those who are 55 and over. this isn't about them. we'll keep that pledge to them. look, we all have parents, mine have passed now but i saw how important medicare was for them in the end years of their life, senior years of their life. i am fully committed to making sure seniors are taken care of. but if you do nothing, the actuaries tell us medicare goes broke so we did something. we said here's a way to deal with medicare. looks a lot like medicare part d, by the way, for the next generation of seniors. obama care's the one that raided $716 billion out of medicare and put it into obama care -- >> do you think medicare's going to be the most debated issue among house candidates, that if we do a survey, do we think that will be the giant issue in house -- >> i don't think so. no, it is economy and jobs. that's the issue americans care about but we're more than happy to have the medicare debate. they're howling about it on the democrat side because we've drawn it back to a tie as an issue. they're not getting any traction. in fact, the kind of ads they've
6:30 am
run, political fact check has called the biggest lie of the year. so they don't have credibility on this issue. the independent folks that look at ads say look at charlie wilson out there in ohio. they've had to take that ad down because it is not truthful. and so we want to tell the truth to american people that the only people that put a tax on the middle class, obama care. that, according to the congressional budget office, is a big tax on middle class and it's $716 billion that the democrats took out of medicare and spent on obama care. >> let me ask you about fund-raising here. in august, democrats outraised you almost 2-1. i was surprised by that. you guys are in the majority, are you not? usually if you're in the majority, what's going on? >> i was a small business owner for 22 years. you don't get to spend gross, you get to spend net. it's what cash you have after your costs. we're $9.8 million cash on hand today ahead of the democrats.
6:31 am
we have $49.8 million in the bank -- >> money follows momentum though, does it not? >> they've outraised us different months of the other. we've outraised them other months of the year. but the momentum doesn't follow money if you didn't keep enough money back to actually spend. you don't get to spen gross, you get to spend net. that's the amount in your checking book, not how much you made and then frittered away. i'd much rather be in our cash situation. and two years ago we were down 121% versus where we are in cash on hand and we picked up 63 net seats. so it is about running smart, tactical campaigns with good grassroots and having the financial resources to make this thi thing work. >> republican tommy thompson said it is boun to have an impact on every election. if your standard bearer for the presidency is not doing well it will reflect on the ballot. do you need to stay strong in the polls? if he's getting hurt, will that hurt your chances in the house?
6:32 am
>> we want mitt romney to be strong in the polls and to win the election. if you go back to 1980 at this point in the race, ronald reagan was down three points or four points in the gallup. mitt romney's basically tied or up one in the gallup polls. this thing has a long way to play out. the other thing, if you look at charlie cook and some independent prognosticators, they say there hasn't really been coattails anyway in the house. senate races are a little different animal than the house race. >> maybe the next chairman of the nrcc. republican from oregon, thanks for coming on. apple's iphone 5 hits stores here in the u.s. about 90 minutes ago. does the phone frenzy boost wall street? it is a quadruple witching friday. becky quick, i grew up with learning these crazy witching fridays so -- so it is option friday. what are the three others? >> it is options and contracts and the futures and stock
6:33 am
indexes on all of them. all four of them are expiring at the same time. usually that means you see some positive activity. in fact, if you looked at the quadruple witching fridays in september for the last eight years, ended up every single one of those times the markets ended higher. this is something we got going for us. it is also a friday -- >> it's not even halloween yet. >> the last eight fridays in a row markets have also ended higher. what does that tell you? it tells you really good things can happen unless we jinx it by talking about these things. dow up by 45 already this morning as the bell's just getting rung. you also bring up the story about apple. this is crazy because there are all these complaints about there about apple maps because they kicked out google maps on this own phone. lots of complaints out there about it but it is not hurting the stock. closed above $700 for the first time this week. it is higher once again today, $703. >> becky quick, thank you much.
6:34 am
today's deep dive, we're going to take a walk down memory lane with a twist. a what if. what if al gore had won the election or been declared the winner. we'll be right back in 30 seconds. the 2000 election was one of the most controversial in american history. a loss that some veteran democrats didn't get over until the election of barack obama eight years later. it was the most important election perhaps in a generation. problem was no one told the voters at the time. they acted as if they didn't care at all about that race.
6:35 am
so what if democrats did it over again and what if they had won? today we're looking at how history happened in an alternate universe. but first let's remind people where we were as americans cast their votes on november 7, 2000. vice president al gore, texas governor george w. bush had fought tooth and nail in the race, it was a dead heat going into election night. two come down to just one state as our own tim russert famously put it, florida, florida, florida. as the results came in, the candidates traded states until it became clear that florida indeed and at the time its 25 electoral votes would put the winner over the top. just after 2:00 a.m. the networks called florida for george w. bush. two hours later they took it back. >> nbc news, as of right now, is calling florida officially too close to call. >> governor bush held all along that the initial results were
6:36 am
the right ones and said as much the day after the voting. for al gore, the recount was his path to victory. one that he held on to for an entire month. all the while workers in florida recounted hundred of thousands of ballots by hand. the recount went on for 36 days until the supreme court had to step in and in a 5-4 partisan decision, if you will, put an end to the recount. >> the majority of the justices simply believing it is just too late and this problem with the varying standards with regard to the ballots, too significant. >> at that point, the writing was on the wall. all that was last was gore's concession to the new president-elect. >> this evening i received a gracious call from the vice president. we agreed to meet early next week in washington and we agreed to do our best to heal our country after this hard fought contest. >> good evening.
6:37 am
just moments ago i spoke with george w. bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the united states. and i promised him that i wouldn't call him back this time. >> what if it didn't happen that way? what if somehow the vice president won florida and the white house? that alternate universe in which al gore becomes president is explored in a new ebook called 43 with an asterisk written by jeff greenfield and columnist for yahoo! joins. he joins me now. you and i trade what-ifs all the time. you turned this into an e-book. what was your motivation? >> i did a book last year when three what-ifs, what if, what about al gore winning florida. i used the same technique. i did a lot of reporting, talked to people what it would have been like and had to come up with a tiny twist of fate that put gore in the white house.
6:38 am
it could not have been a recount because all of the mechanics were on the side of bush. >> the twist of fate was what? >> very simple -- eelian gonzalez' mother doesn't drown. she survives the shipwreck. she takes custody of the boy with no particular controversy. >> a lot of people feel like eelieel i i ilian. >> that issue cost gore some 50,000 votes in florida. bill snider makes the same argument. that's how i get him in. >> that would have meant vice president lieberman. this is where you have an interesting plot twist because 9/11 happens. then have you a split between the president and vice president. >> well, yes. i did an awful lot of research in to 9/11. my feeling is al gore would have been much more on the case than bush because he had been on the national security council for eight years. the bush people had been out of power for eight years. al qaeda when they left in '93 was a non-issue. but if you know how the bureaucracy works and you live in this town, it doesn't matter
6:39 am
in some sense what the president is demanding if filtering down to the bureaucracy it is still the same "cya" turf -- >> you still had sxwreintellige issues, that all was still going to be a problem. >> again, can you make your own scenario but 9/11 despite the efforts of president go, through another twist that i'm not going to tell you about, people can spend $1.99 to find out, it's even worse. then you have i think a much less unified country. i think the politics would have been much tougher on gore than bush and, as the iraq issue emerges, are we going to go into iraq. because there's a lot of pressure. gore's resisting it. who's the vice president? joe lieberman. there's no one more hawkish about iraq back then than lieberman. so you have an interesting, i hope, political debate. from does he actually win re-election or do we have to read the book? >> of course you have to read the book. i will only say that i think -- i leave it on a cliffhanger. so maybe i can do another. >> everything happens for a reason. would there have been a barack obama --
6:40 am
>> first, i think everything doesn't happen for a reason. mere fate governs. you want to hear god laugh? make a plan. i do think -- i didn't take it that far. but i do think that the barack obama presidential race was conditioned on a profound disaffection with politics as usual which hurt not just the republicans but hillary clinton. so you -- whatever 2008 produced in my alternate universe, you would have had to have had an appetite for something really different and new so that the normal options -- >> it's possible the republican party would have gone through their transformation that they're in now earlier. >> that's the neat thing. the reason i do all these books -- >> because he would have gotten rid of the bush family. >> the reason i do these is to try to show people how much these hinge moments depend on mere twists of fate. i can't tell what you would have happened. >> i'll give you another one you could have done with florida in 1998. katherine harris doesn't win the job of secretary of state. which almost didn't happen either. >> as i say, this is like the
6:41 am
notion that there are an infinite number of parallel universes. the only thing that never happens in a parallel universe is the chicago cubs don't win the world series. some things don't -- >> jeff greenfield, you have too much fun. i still love your book about "the people's choice." make it an ebook. publishers out there, find this man, make it an ebook. >> a movie! >> we'll see. 269-269 we'll get it. up next, the war of words over what really happened at the consulate in libya. wait until you see how partisan the exchanges got yesterday on capitol hill. plus our nbc battleground map turned a little bluer today. our friday political panel will be here to talk about that as well. this weekend nbc news is kicking off the third annual now -- there is great, we've done this three years in a row -- education nation summit in new york. all of the networks at nbc will have coverage on air and online all next week. we'll vihave interviews with bo
6:42 am
president obama and mitt romney. "the daily rundown" will be live at the summit on tuesday. but now, the friday soup of the day. they usually try to skip meat. so today it is roasted vegetable. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ] [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards!
6:43 am
awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. it put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic
6:44 am
or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. with chantix and with the support system it worked. it worked for me. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad
6:45 am
we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. republicans on the hilda are calling for an investigation into the death of four americans in libya, including the u.s. ambassador, chris stevens. here's senator john mccain last night. >> i know that four americans are dead. when four americans are dead, there need to be an investigation to find out. i know that this administration has a fundamental misunderstanding of what's going on in the middle east. >> let's bring in our panel. president of the center for american progress, jennifer rubin, jackie, let me start with you. what we have seen -- this libya thing, what's in the white house feels as if they slow walked this a little bit, taking a
6:46 am
little time comparatively to what we're hearing on the hill, hearing from intelligence. not having a political impact yet but could it? >> we've seen in the polls recently voters aren't really tuning in about foreign policy. they're not voting about foreign policy despite all these things that are going on. >> in our poll the president took a hit and it didn't affect the ballot. >> exactly. it's not something people vote about. >> jennifer, you're a foreign policy hawk. i think we know that if we follow you. would you be advising the romney campaign to go all in? this morning dan senor wanted to talk about syria. should he be doing that or should he be focusing more on the economy? >> funny you ask. i wrote this morning suggesting a speech for these folks. i think they haven't moved the numbers because they haven't made the case this is indicative of a bigger problem of leadership. the narrative. their message -- or i think their message is supposed to be that this president is in over his head, he hasn't led, he's been reactive. and there's a lot of good stuff
6:47 am
for them in the foreign policy realm, including the fact that talk about jumping the gun first. they sent out susan rice on the talk shows last week to give a narrative that really has collapsed this week. that is that it was all a spontaneous reaction to this film. i think they're vulnerable on this. >> it does seem as if -- i mean they left susan rice hanging out on a limb. >> you know, i hope they take that advice to do a big foreign policy speech. >> you think it would be a mistake. >> i think it will further show how out of touch he is with american voters. he has been arguing for a year that it's about the economy and obviously he's been off track on that message. his first foray into foreign policy i think was a disaster last week. take it from me, take it from republican after republican. my view of this is that these are important issues and should not be handled in a campaign context. i think it would be a mistake for him to politicize these issues, but if he'd like to, have at it. >> to jennifer's point, he's
6:48 am
given a couple of foreign policy speeches but he hasn't drawn the contrast. there are people trying to tell him, hey, you need to do something here. john mccain was one of them. >> he's afraid if he goes out on a limb one way or the other he's going to alienate people on the right or maybe some swing voters. i think you've seen this campaign be cautious on a lot of these issues an this is no exception. he can't say what the difference is between his policy on afghanistan and obama's policy on afghanistan. little things like that. >> you interviewed gillespie yesterday. remain calm, but did you ask about this perception that they're too cautious? >> oh, yeah, and that they have been too slow. let me zig back for a moment. notice that -- i didn't answer your question, did they hang susan rice out to dry. they did. this is the sort of non-answer avoidance that the obama folks are getting away with because romney hasn't come and put the pieces together. i think ed gillespie is exquisitely sensitive to the fact that they have not been
6:49 am
quick enough, they have not been explaining themselves, they've not connected the dots. the question is do they have enough time to execute. >> i'm just looking at the date. >> seven weeks. >> just on the issue of susan rice, what i find entertaining about this is this is -- on one hand it is a serious issue, yet everyone's arguing about making -- scoring political points on this. what happened in libya is something that i think everyone should take heed from what mitt romney did and take it seriously and try and get the answers. this is the issue with susan which is, this is the information that they had, it's not leaking out. i think the question is, what is the right information. the president has a responsibility. we're not talking about scoring political points. he has a responsibility to communicate these issues. >> yesterday he was essentially giving a false narrative to the public. it wasn't until their own national security director came forward and said, of course this is a terrorist attack that the white house had to turn on the dime. that's exactly right. >>vy to press the pause button
6:50 am
for one more break so we can talk move. we'll press pause. trivia though, when was the last time control of the house of representatives switched parties in a presidential election year? 1952. folks, this stuff doesn't happen very often in presidential years. republicans gained control the election of dwight eisenhower. it's been 60 years, 6-0, since the house majority changed hands in a presidential election year. came close in '96 until that fund-raising scandal on chinese money was a blow to the democrats. do you have a political trivia question you think should be on the show? e-mail us at msnbc.com. we'll be right back.
6:51 am
rachel quit the corporate grind to start her own interior design business. she's got a growing list of clients she keeps in touch with using e-mail marketing from constantcontact.com. constantcontact is easy and affordable. it lets her send out updates and photos that showcase her expertise and inspire her customers for only $15 a month. [ dog barking ] her dream -- to be the area's hottest interior design office. [ children laughing ] right now, she just dreams of an office. get a free trial at constantcontact.com. something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar.
6:52 am
nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally.
6:53 am
well, the road to 270 looks a little harder. after a slew of polling in our
6:54 am
own and others, we have president obama moving iowa from toss-up to lean democrat putting him 27 electoral votes away. one state, if you view the state of florida to that magic 270 number and the second term in the white house. our panel is with us. i want to start with the iowa point. i made it earlier, jackie. but since april, basically since rom inn wrapped up the nomination, both romney and obama hit iowa seven times. is this a constant theme if you actually track this event by event? tr trip-by-trip comparison? >> hearing republicans saying, start campaigning more. the "usa today"/gallup poll, democratic enthusiasm is huge, going up and it's the right time for it for the democrats. that's when early voting tomorr
6:55 am
tomorrow, in all these states, as you said. >> a duel buster in ohio. some ohio republicans are going, where were you a month ago? >> they certainly have heard the screams and hollers on a lot of fronts. one there is to get out and campaign more. one of the factors to also look at is how significant and effective has the rnc been in taking advantage of shifts in voter registration? in iowa and florida, there's actual been been an uptick in truben registration since 2008 but are they reaching those people, getting absentee ballots? >> a good question. statistical announcements iowa democrats have a 7-1 absentee ballot request advantage, i want to put up. guess what happens tomorrow. put up this map. 25 states begin. you can vote either absentee or early starting tomorrow. all the states. the ones highlighted in red in our battleground, north carolina, virginia, new hampshire, wisconsin. you guys have always believed this is among how you will bank votes early. you guys believe you will do
6:56 am
that more so -- >> yes. the big point voter enthusiasm point. democrats had a great convention. this is hitting at the right time. it's turning those votes, into absentee voters requests. to get them to actually vote and that's the most important thing. >> we will be following it. look at you a the voting and a debate hasn't been held yet. shameless plugs? >> in "usa today." phenomenal story on the droughts in the midwest. a great piece, worth the read. >> front page of the "wall street journal." phenomenal piece on security lapses in libya. hear more about it next week i think. >> two phenomenals by the way. >> and showing that an ohio police officer will have a $1,260 tax increase in the romney plan. and obama has a $2 billion tax cut. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." have a great weekend. please, miami. try hold this georgia tech
6:57 am
offense to maybe less than 300 yards rushing. we'll see you on monday. 's in fros in new york, coming up next, chris jansing, "jansing and co." [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth! now we need a little bit more... a little bit more vanilla? this is great! [ male announcer ] at humana, we believe there's never been a better time to share your passions... because the results... are you having fun doing this? yeah. that's a very nice cake! [ male announcer ] well, you can't beat them. [ giggles ] ohh! you got something huh? whoa... [ male announcer ] humana understands the value of spending time together that's a lot of work getting that one in! let's go see the birdies. [ male announcer ] one on one, sharing what you know. let's do it grandpa. that's why humana agents will sit down with you, to listen and understand what's important to you.
6:58 am
it's how we help you choose the right humana medicare plan for you. because when your medicare is taken care of, you can spend more time sharing your passions. wow. [ giggles ] [ male announcer ] with the people who matter most. i love you grandpa! i love you grandma! now you're a real fisherman. [ male announcer ] humana. now you're a real fisherman. i'm bara ck o now you're a real fisherman. bama and i approve romney: "it's time to stand up to the cheaters" vo: tough on china? not mitt romney. when a flood of chinese tires threatened a thousand american jobs... it was president obama who stood up to china and protected american workers. mitt romney attacked obama's decision... said standing up to china was "bad for the nation and our workers." how can mitt romney take on the cheaters... when he's taking their side? stop! stop! stop! come back here!
6:59 am
humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back with great ideas like our optional better car replacement. if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call... and ask one of our insurance experts about it today. hello?! we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, and we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. [car alarm blaring] call now and also ask about our 24/7 support and service. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? made gluten-free cereals in a bunch of yummy flavors. like cinnamon chex, honey nut chex,